15 month update!

Kayden had his 15 month doctor appointment yesterday. He is growing.... but not very much! haha! He's still our little bitty skinny boy, but he is growing so that's all that matters. We got the run down on the gluten, since we have been adding it back in and we haven't noticed much of anything we decided to just keep giving him some and see how he handles it. The gluten testing is very invasive so they do not want to do it on small children unless it is absolutely necessary. He has been having weird diapers lately but I'm hoping that's just from maybe a little bug he has gotten and not because of the gluten. I haven't really been watching the amount he gets lately so I'm going to have to start being better at keeping a note of what he eats each day.
We got the lecture of continuing his vitamins. He refuses to take the iron drops with vitamins (poly-vi-sol) and therefore we stopped giving them to him. We use to be able to mix them in his formula bottles and he wouldn't notice but now that he no longer gets formula or bottles, we haven't been giving it to him. There is no way he will take it without mixing it into something (we've tried.... and it turned into him refusing to take ANY type of medicine because he thought it was all going to taste as bad as the iron drops). We tried mixing it in with his milk from his sippy cup and he could tell instantly that that wasn't right. She suggested trying to cut up gummy vitamins and see how he does with chewing and taking those. Hopefully those will work! With his weight, she really wants him to be taking some type of vitamin so we've got to figure something out!

The stats:
Length: 31 inches (50%tile) up 1 1/2 inches
Weight: 19.8 pounds (<5%tile......) up 1 pound and 4 ounces

Yes, at 15 months old... we still haven't hit the 20 pound mark. We are hoping to get there by 18 months... :)

It's been awhile!

It's been awhile since I have last posted! Things have just been absolutely crazy around here! We have finally finished at our old church and are settling into our new church which we absolutely LOVE! I was scared of making new friends and getting to know new people but it has been very easy and I am enjoying the new relationships God has brought into our life. They are simply wonderful!

Our house is moving a long. We got a picture yesterday that showed all of the siding is finished and they are moving on to the inside! We were able to look around the inside with all the framing up and it just seems so BIG! It's definitely much bigger than our house now so we are excited to finally have a place for everything. We are definitely counting down the days until we move!


Kayden was ADORABLE for his second Halloween. Since I got to pick him first Halloween costume, Nick decided that he got to pick his Halloween costume this year. He wanted to get fake tattoo sleeves and make him a rocker. I was leary about it, but it turned out absolutely ADORABLE!


Thanksgiving came and went with our usual craziness. One place to the next, but it was fun to spend an extra long weekend with my sweet boy. We really enjoyed ourselves and spent all our time together :) I really needed it.

We are currently looking for a daycare for Kayden when we move. It's been really hard on me and we have looked at one that I was very unhappy about. I keep telling myself that we will find a place.... but the 2 1/2 week dead line keeps creeping up with no place for him to go.

Christmas is next! We will hopefully be going to see Santa this week and just got our tree up yesterday. I'm one of those people who usually have the tree up the day after Thanksgiving but with our crazy busy lives, it just didn't happen this year! Kayden has also not been the best about the tree so it was probably for the better :)

Singing

Singing bonds a family to each other. Singing makes memories. Singing helps us overcome difficulties. Singing makes us happy.

Happy children SING! =)
(http://www.housewifeintown.com/2011/10/sing-together-day-four.html)

I LOVE THIS! A friend pinned on Pinterest a blog that had a series going on called "31 days to happy children". I ran across this post and absolutely adored it. It reminded me of Kayden's new found love. Singing. You can ask him to sing and he will open his mouth up wide and say "ahhhhhhh". He LOVES when we sing to him. Of course, he has since day one. We sing ALL.THE.TIME. He is always around Nick singing, of course, but I also sing a lot to him. I have always sung to him while I rocked him but recently we have been singing a lot of the children songs with hand motions to them. I'm telling you, he LOVES them.

When we sing "5 Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" He will jump up and down, put his hands on his head, "call the doctor" with his hand to his ear, and shake his finger "no,no,no". This was one that I have always sung to him in the morning because when I stayed home with him (and now on the weekends) I always brought him back to our bed for a little bit and this song would always pop into my head.

We sing "Itsy, Bitsy, Spider" and he puts his little fingers together when the spider is going up the spout, puts his hands above his head for the rain and sun... this is one of his favorites right now.

He has been doing "Patty Cake" for quite a while now with his favorite motion being "roll em up". He rolls EVERYTHING up! This was one of the first hand motions put to song that he learned besides the pointing of the finger in "5 little monkeys".

We also sing "Deep and Wide", which he has recently been spreading his arms out wide when we ask him where things are (cutest thing ever!) so he has started doing that when we sing Deep and Wide too.

Since he seems to pick things up quickly through song, I have also started singing the ABC song. He loves it, but I wish it had hand motions to it. Oh well, at least we are starting to expose him to the ABC's. I really want to find a song to the numbers also.

I hope his love for music stays with him the rest of his life. He absolutely loves music, and I love that! :)

CH- CH- CH- CHANGES!

For a girl who doesn't like change, There sure is a lot of it going on around here! I'm trying to think of it as a good thing getting it all over at once... but then I'm waiting for the complete melt down. I've had a couple moments, but not the big meltdown that I am just waiting to happen.

So what are all these changes you may ask:
1) Well obviously, we all know I started teaching 1st grade in August. I no longer stay at home with my precious boy. It has it's ups and downs. I have good days and bad days. I'm just trying to make it through the year.

2) Nick was presented with the opportunity to lead worship at a friends church called Mosaic. We are SOOOO excited about this! We've been ready for a change for a while, and this church seems to fit us perfectly! Nick played there one night and they decided to ask him if he would lead worship and be the one to help coordinate all of that. It's a beautiful church that has a diverse congregation and we felt welcomed from day one. It's a smaller church, which we are loving because we are really getting to know the people and form relationships. We both grew up at our other church, and it's the only church I have ever known, but we are excited for the change. However, that leads to our current housing situation....

3) We are BUYING and BUILDING a house!! Holy smokes! if you told me a year ago that we would be buying and owning our own home I would say you are crazy! It was a decision that I have struggled with and spent many hours going back and forth over. Thankfully, our old church that we have been renting our house from is going to let us live here until our house is finished. The date they are planning on having it finished is January 28th. He is going to try to get it done before Christmas but it just depends on a lot of different factors.... and things never go as planned in the building industry so we aren't going to hold out hope. We will be living right next to our friends who helped start Mosaic and whom we have known for a while. They have a 5 year old boy and a 1 1/2 year old little girl so we are excited that Kayden will have some kids to play with. It definitely all happened really fast... and that makes me so nervous but we both feel like this is where we are meant to be and it has been obvious that the Lord has had his hand on this plan the whole time.

Soooo.... two new jobs, a house, a new church.... I think that's about all the change I can handle for right now. Please don't throw any thing else at me! :) Thankfully we are so happy with all these changes and know that the Lord will hold, protect, carry and guide us through everything.

12 month stats!

Kayden has his 1 year appointment and it was exactly like we thought.... skinny skinny minnie!!!

Length: 29 1/2 inches (50%)
Weight: 18.4 pounds (< 5th%)

She isn't too concerned about his weight. It kinda freaks me out, but both of us are skinny and were very skinny when we were little so I'm trying not to worry too much about it. She does not want us to give him anything other than whole milk because whole milk has more fat in it than 2% or reduced fat. We are also weaning off of formula and his bottle. She wasn't as concerned about the formula (because of the weight) as she was getting him off the bottle. She said we could put his formula in his sippy cup, but I'm pretty dead set on getting him off of both formula and bottle together. He's just not a very good eater though so we will just have to roll with the punches on this one. I'm hoping he will put on some weight but trying not to stress out about it too much.

1st birthday bash!

We had a wonderful day full of fun for Kayden's first birthday! I can't believe that one year ago today I was just meeting my sweet boy for the first time. We have had a wonderful year with him and are looking forward to many more years to come. He is such a sweet boy and I couldn't imagine my life without him!

Here are a couple pictures from the party... At the bottom there is a link to my facebook album to see all of the days activities :)



















http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100306172185410.2575874.12931505&l=7e3751ae17&type=1

11 months old

Dear Kayden-
11 months old! Only one more month until you turn the big 1!! You have learned so much over the past couple of months that it just amazes me! You can stand on your own, say a couple words such as mama, dada, nana, no no, dog, and duck. You also say all done and more in sign language. You are slowly diminishing your bottles, now only taking about 3-4 a day and none at night. You sleep all on your own in your crib all through the nights. If someone asked mommy a couple months back if you would ever sleep in your crib, she would have said no..... but thankfully you finally learned how :)

This month mommy started back to work. You stay with mrs. stephanie and love playing with ellie and luke. You also get to go to church for Mother's day out and love playing with your friends there too. It's so weird to mommy that she doesn't know what your teachers look like or who they are, but I know you are in good hands. Nana drops you off and daddy picks you up and they say you are doing great there. Mommy misses you so much every day and hates having to drop you off. I wish I could stay with you all day. I LOVE coming home to you and seeing the big smile on your face when you see me though. It makes it all worth it. You are just the sweetest little boy!

You love playing with toys and books now. You will just sit in the floor and play with your toys without a care in the world. You love playing peek a boo and patty cake and we have started itsy bitsy spider. You love being outside, and when we say let's go bye bye your face lights up! You don't like to be in one place too long so going outside is a nice break for you. You love to go out back and see Skye, as long as he doesn't bark or howl at you.

Here before too long, we will be writing your 1 year letter! I can't believe that you have been in our lives for almost a year. I still remember seeing you for the first time and you being that little bitty 6 pound baby. My my how much you have grown! I love you sweet boy and can't wait to see what the rest of the month hold for us!

I love you!
Mommy

Kayden's First Steps

Kayden has been trying to walk for a little while now. He would cruise all over the place, but once you put him out there on his own, he would get scared and sit down. He can stand for quite a while on his own, and will sit down without falling. Today, I was just putting him down on the floor and he decided he wanted to stand rather than sit. I stood him up right on the floor and usually he would just sit down. However, he decided he was going to walk to nick. He balanced himself on his own, and then took 5 steps to nick! We were SHOCKED!! We kept trying to get him to take that many again, but the most we have been able to get since are three. He is getting there though and I can't believe that very soon, we will have a toddler!

Sleeping (I feel like this is the title of 2/3rds of my posts!)

FINALLY!!!! I am happy to report that as of 3 nights ago, Kayden will actually lay down and go to sleep at night time. He will fuss for just a second when I lay him down but then he will just stop crying and will go back and forth from laying down to sitting to standing and continues doing that until he finally caves, lays down, and goes to sleep. It's usually about a 5 minutes process. I'm just thankful he doesn't cry anymore when we put him in his bed!

However, he still wakes up in the middle of the night and does not put himself back to sleep. I end up going to get him and put him in the bed with us. I can't figure out why he can't put himself back to sleep in the middle of the night but he can when we first put him down. So, that will be our next step.

I tried just putting him down for naps today too. That didn't work. Oh well, I'll take what I can get at this point!

I start back to work next Thursday. As many know, we had no where for Kayden to go on Thursdays and that was pretty stressful for me! Luckily, I got an email from our church's Mother's Day Out coordinator and they still had a spot open for Thursday's. They start August 16 so my mom is going to take off this Thursday (also the first day of school) and then he will start going there on Thursdays! I'm so thankful that this worked out because I was getting worried!! :)

This is Kind of a big deal!

We recently started full blown "cry it out". Every time we have tried it in the past, we would do it for a couple days and then Kayden would get sick and we wouldn't feel comfortable enough continuing to let him cry in his crib. It was also really hard for me to get back into the routine of cry it out because Kayden would SCREAM bloody murder. It's seriously not just the crying... it's screaming. My child has lungs.

We then tried just rocking him to sleep and then laying him in his crib. I kind of enjoyed rocking and cuddling with him and then laying him down. I just wanted him to sleep in his crib. However, that wasn't working out very well. Getting him to actually stay asleep once we put him in the crib was hit or miss, and then after about an hour he would wake back up and not be able to put himself back to sleep. I knew something had to change. Especially with me going back to work and Kayden going to a babysitter during the day. We were still having to hold him in order for him to take his full length in naps (2, 2 hour naps). I know that his baby sitter will not be able to do this so I knew we had to start something.

Enter-----> full blown cry it out method. After talking to a friend and telling me that she recently did cry it out with her son (who is only a week younger than kayden), I decided that we just needed to do it. I know this friend does a lot of research on stuff when it comes to her child so I knew that it wouldn't scar him for life :) The first night we did our bath, bottle, book, rock/cuddle routine and then put him to bed awake but drowsy. A lot of people have told me not to do the rocking and cuddling part, since that is how he is use to falling asleep but I have a very cuddly baby right now, and when I go back to work I know that those moments are going to be so precious so I will continue it as long as he will let me. He cried for 3......THREE HOURS. I didn't go check on him once. We have a video baby monitor so I could see him every second and I knew if I went in to his room, it would just make it that much worse (found out from the previous cry it out experiences). It was sooooo hard to let him cry for three hours. And after three hours, I went in there, sat next to his crib and he laid down and fell right to sleep in his crib. I just held his hand, but he went to sleep in his crib. That was big for us. That was a step. But as the next couple weeks progressed, I felt like I was going to have to go in and sit next to his crib for the rest of my life. It wasn't that bad. I enjoyed going in and sitting next to it and holding his hand. It usually didn't take long after I went in there for him to fall asleep, no longer than 10 minutes, but usually just 5 or even less. It was just the fact that he would still wake up in the middle of the night crying and would eventually go back in to our bed. I felt like he still wasn't learning how to put himself to sleep.

I started lowering the time I let him cry before I went in there. The second night (after our 3 hours long scream fest), I just let him cry for an hour and a half and then went in to sit next to his crib, then an hour, then 45 minutes. Every time it still wouldn't take him long to fall asleep once I went in. We had to take a little bit of a break from this though so I thought tonight would be twenty times more rough than it had been. We had a really busy weekend so he never got good naps during the day and then we were out late so I usually ended up just rocking him to sleep and then putting him to sleep in our bed. We took about a 4 day hiatus, and then tonight we did our normal routine, I put him in bed and let him start crying. I was going to wait 45 minutes tonight and then start decreasing the crying time after tonight but much to my amazement, 20 minutes of just crying... NO SCREAMING... he was laying down and within the next 10 minutes he was completely asleep. I still can't believe it! It was such a fresh breath of air.

I feel like we have struggled for a long time with sleeping. I was getting really worried about sleeping, especially with me going back to work and needed my rest. He may not sleep through the night, and may still wind up in our bed sometime during the middle of the night... but I am ok with that for now. It's good cuddling time. I just really needed the late evening part of bedtime to work so that I could get things ready for the next day and get the house work done without listening to Kayden screaming. He will hopefully now get better rest seeing as how he is actually falling asleep closer to a normal bed time now, and he will be waking up earlier than he is use to in order to go to the sitters on monday, wednesday, and thursday.

We still haven't tried naps. I wanted to get night time down first. Hopefully nap times will be easier once we get the whole bed time, falling asleep on your own thing. We will see!

It's all coming to an end....

We went and visited with the lady that will be watching on Kayden on Monday's and Wednesday's when I go back to work. We are so fortunate to have a Christian lady with a little girl a couple months younger than Kayden that has agreed to watch him those 2 days. She is wonderful and such a sweetheart and I know he will do great there. However, this visit just solidified the fact that, in 16 short days I will no longer be a stay at home mom and will switch my role as primary care taker of kayden, to "secondary". I know I will always be the primary care taker per say.. but he is now going to be with people who will see him for a longer wake time than I will. I know people do it every day and their kids turn out just fine. It's just getting harder and harder on me to believe that I will no longer be home with him all the time and I will have to depend on someone else to feed, change, comfort, and play with my baby. I know everyone who will be watching him will do all of these things just as well, if not better, than what I can do.. but he's my baby and I'm having a really hard time letting go of that. I just keep telling myself that people go back to work after only 6 weeks of staying home with their baby and they are just fine. I KNOW he will be just fine, I'm just not quite ready for all of this to come to an end. Thankfully, this lady will watch him Monday and wednesdays, Nick will be home with him on Tuesdays or Thursdays (he will stay home one of those days, and we aren't sure where Kayden will go the other day) and my mom will keep him on Fridays. He WILL be ok. I WILL be ok. That's the mantra i'm just going to have to keep telling myself. I just don't know if telling myself that will work come August 11th.

Big boy carseat!

We got Kayden's big boy car seat in today! We ended up going with the Britax Marathon 70 because it has the highest safety ratings, goes up to 40lbs rear facing, and 70 forward facing. It isn't too big so that we can easily get it in and out of our cars and it's super comfy. We got it at a GREAT price too! The most I have seen it priced at was 289 and the least was on amazon for 219... but we got it for 179! I feel like that's a pretty good deal and I am thankful that I asked "Baby Cheapskate" on facebook for the best price. Then, when we went through the whole ordering process, order the black "onyx" colored seat. 30 minutes later we get an email saying there was a merchandise problem and they no longer have the black one, only the red and "cow" colored ones. I definitely was not a fan of the cow, and the red was alright... but I was really bummed about not being able to get the black one. I'm not normally THAT person, but we sent back an email asking if they would go down on the price anymore since it was a problem on their end and I was really only looking for the black one. They went down $10 more dollars (hey... 10 dollars is 10 dollars!) and so we ended up going with the red one. It's really not that bad now that we have it.. and I actually like it! For right now, this one will go in Nick's car since we take it more and I will keep the carrier in my car (booo!! but my mom actually buys the babies "big kid" car seat for their first birthdays and we can't afford to buy that expensive of a car seat until I get my first pay check for teaching... and Kayden isn't that close to reaching his limits on the carrier yet) However, we will be leaving that one with the sitter so really we will just be switching the car seat back and forth for a while. Thankfully it's really easy to install in Nick's car since he has the LATCH system, we haven't tried it in my car yet (i don't have the latch system) but it looks like it may be a little more difficult so we will see. Over all I am really excited about his new seat, but sad that within the matter of 24 hours we have started a pinterest board with decorations for his first birthday, put up the swing, and installed his new car seat. SLOW. IT. DOWN. !!!!
Trying it out in Nana's living room after it arrived!

In the car! (and daddy making funny faces to make him laugh)

10 months old

Dear Kayden-
Here we are with only 2 months left until your first birthday! I can't believe it's already time to start planning! I can't believe that in just 2 short months I will no longer have a "baby". I'm sure I will shed many tears on September 9th!

This month you have traveled so much! You were gone from home for almost 3 weeks out of the month! We traveled 2,900 miles and for the most part you were a really good baby! We went to Florida with Nana, Grampa, Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Paige, and Audrey. This was your first long car ride, and your first time at the beach! You were WONDERFUL on the trip down! You slept almost all the way there and when you were awake you just looked around trying to figure out what we were doing. You LOVED the beach and enjoyed playing in the sand, the water, and taking naps on the beach. I couldn't have asked for a better baby, especially since your daddy wasn't there!

After Florida, we went to go visit daddy in North Carolina! You hadn't seen daddy for 2 weeks, and even though it was late at night when daddy got to the hotel, you woke up and were so happy to see him! We stayed in North Carolina with daddy until he was finished recording and then we all headed to South Carolina to meet up with Gramma, Pops... and the WHOLE gang! You loved myrtle beach and you were a great baby there too! It was obvious that you loved when daddy took you out into the ocean and to the pool too! You sure did miss him!

This month you also started getting TEETH!!!! You got 4 teeth all at the same time. You did great with getting so many at one time. Mommy was starting to think you would never get teeth but there they were!!

You understand so much, even though you don't say very clear words right now. We say "dadadadadada" all the time and try to say dog but it comes out more like "dah" (but it definitely sounds different than "dada"! We can ask you several things though and it is obvious that you understand what we are saying. We can ask you "where's the dog" and you will instantly look through the kitchen door to the back door and start crawling over there. We can also ask you "where's mommy" or "where's daddy" and you will look at the correct person. If mommy asks you where daddy is when he is not home you instantly look up to the big picture of mommy and daddy on the wall. You are so smart my sweet boy and I love watching you learn new things everyday!

You crawl, pull up and cruise all over the place. You can stand for a couple seconds by yourself and you try to walk by yourself but don't have quite the balance yet. It won't be long though my sweet baby... and then you will official be a toddler, and not mommy's little baby anymore! Take your time sweet boy... mommy's not quite ready yet!

Here we go onto another month. This will be mommy's last full month staying home with you, so please don't grow up too fast sweet boy!
Love you forever,
Mommy

The Gluten Free Diet

Well, it looks like we will be switching K-man to a gluten free diet. We knew there was a chance of this when he had such a hard time with the baby cereals. I was really hoping we wouldn't have to, but more and more things are pointing to celiacs disease. He has had cereal and the gerber puffs for a while and his gas and constipation have stayed around. I was doing some research on the issue and two of the main symptoms in infants is gas and constipation. Cheerios, gerber puffs, goldfish, and animal crackers all have gluten in them, which is everything he eats for snacks during the day.

I felt like he was having a lot of gas problems, more so for his age. We have to still give him mylicon drops every night and even those don't help. He will wake up from the gas, and he has to be pressed up against one of us when he sleeps a lot of nights. I'm really hoping that by eliminating these foods, he will sleep better also. Here's to hoping. In my research I also found that it can lead to iron deficiency, which he have to give iron drops right now because of an iron deficiency. We had talked to the pediatrician about the baby cereals at his 9 month appointment and she said to watch him as he started to eat more solid foods, so I guess we will report back to her at his 12 month appointment and let her know that he is still having gas and constipation issues. While I was hoping it would not be celiacs, I'm just ready for his tummy to feel better and for him to not have such pain.

Big Boy Food!

We are finally back from all our traveling! I'll post more about that later but I just have to post pictures of Kayden eating his first "Big Boy Meal". We've been trying for a while to get him to eat chunks of food rather than just the purees. He never has been interested in anything other than his puffs, cheerios, and yogurt melts. While we were in South Carolina, we decided to let him try some pieces of chicken when we were out at a restaurant one night. He LOVED chicken! We didn't give him too much of it though because I wanted to make sure he digested it alright and it didn't upset his stomach.

Today, I made a pork roast and decided to give him some pieces of that and fixed him some sweet peas to eat a long with it. He would never eat pureed peas so I was interested in seeing if he would eat the big ones. LOVED all of it! Guess he is started to get the hang of eating big boy food! Good thing! I was scared he was going to eat purees for forever!!

Teeth!!!

We have teeth!!! 4 of them to be exact!!! I was starting to think Kayden would never get teeth. His cousin Avery and Audrey both didn't get teeth until around their 1 year birthday so I wasn't too concerned, but we were having a hard time getting him to eat chunky food. Audrey was eating like a pro with no teeth. The girl could have gone on to live the rest of her life without any teeth and still eat anything she wanted. I was amazed! But Kayden would spit anything out that wasn't pureed besides puffs, yogurt melts, and cheerios. I tried making our homemade baby food extra chunky but he was not a fan! I was getting worried because I would really like to have him weaned off most of his bottles by the time he is 12 months, but with him not eating diced foods I felt like that was never going to happen.

While we were in Florida, my mom and I both thought we felt and saw a tooth on the bottom and top but Kayden would never let us really look in there or even really stick a finger in there so we kinda just left it. He has really hard gums so even when he was like 4 months old it felt like he had teeth and they are so close to the gum line that you could kinda see little white spots but obviously nothing ever broke through. On our way home from Florida, Kayden was a BEAR! I mean, he screamed all.the.way. home. 14 hours, and he had to have at least screamed for half of it. It was miserable. When we got home, I was finally able to stick my finger in his mouth and felt something really sharp on the bottom, but he still wouldn't let me look in.

The day before we were to leave to go see Nick in North Carolina I started noticing a lot of gunk coming out of Kayden's eye. He had a blocked tear duct when he was born and it was just like that, only it was coming out of both eyes. I emailed the pediatrician, knowing that we would be gone for 2 weeks and wanted to make sure it wasn't anything like pink eye or an ear or eye infection. She had me bring him in and she was able to make him open his mouth up and we saw a little tooth on the bottom that had just broken through the gums. He did end up with what we think were the beginning stages of pink eye but drops cleared it up really fast.

While we were down in North Carolina, Nick and I were out eating at a pizza place and Nick had Kayden laying down in his lap tickling Kayden. Kayden would throw his head back and open his mouth cackling and Nick goes "Oh my gosh look at this tooth!" There was a HUGE tooth through the gums on the top. A lot of it was sticking through, more than the tooth on the bottom. It was an actual tooth through the gums! and it was HUGE! It's actually kinda scary how big it looks! I couldn't believe it! We were able to see that one, and a hint of the other front tooth next to it, and then both bottom teeth are making their way through! A friend on facebook said that she had the difficulty with getting her son to eat chunks of food too until he got his teeth through at 10 months so hopefully that was why he wasn't interested in the chunks of food because it felt weird to his gums. He really hasn't even been eating much food at all because of his teeth, besides his bottles. Hopefully these 4 teeth will make their way through and we will be able to start weaning bottles and get more of a regular breakfast/lunch/dinner thing going on. I can't believe my baby has TEETH! AND is 2.5 months away from being ONE. I'm getting a little depressed :(

P.S. I'll try getting a picture of his teeth. He is REALLY difficult for some reason when it comes to prying his mouth open to feel/look at them!

Beach!

Kayden's first trip to the beach!

9 month check up

There is so much I want to post, like how kayden claps his hands, his first time in the pool, and how he is all over the place. However, nick has our laptop, my moms computer is SLOW ( and I don't mean just "I'm inpatient slow", it takes 5 minutes just to pull up the Internet) so I'm having to post from my phone, which isn't as easy as it sounds, and also means there are probably a ton of typos too thanks to autocorrect. Anyways, kayden just keeps growing and learning new things everyday. He has finally figured out how to crawl, claps his hands, eats and eats and eats, pulls up on anything and everything along with walk and walk and walk. He walks along anything that he can and even just uses toys to walk. Many people say they don't think it will be long because he just barely holds on to things when he is walking. He can also stand on his own for about 5 seconds. He is growing tooooooo fast!

We had his 9 month appointment last week and kayden weighed 17 pounds and was 27 inches long. I don't have the paper with the percentiles with me but they are still low, but he is still growing. We talked about the fact that rice and barley was causing him to be really fussy and act like his stomach hurt so we are having to start watching for a gluten intolerance when he starts eating more big food. So we will see!

We also had to do his finger prick to check his blood. We got a phone call from the pediatrician today and he has low iron levels so he has to start taking a multivitamin with iron and watch his iron levels over the next couple of months. She said it's nothing to worry about but to just monitor. We were thinking that the additional iron in the cereals and formula was what was causing his stomach problems, but apparently not. We are really hoping it's not a gluten intolerance but only time will tell! Atleast it is not too serious and overall we have a healthy baby boy!

Crawling!

We finally (officially) have a crawler!! Kayden could go from sitting to his hands and knees, from laying down to sitting up, and move a leg to where it looked like he was going to go get something but then lay flat. He would find a way to get to things even if it wasn't crawling. A week ago he did a funny bear crawl where both of his legs were up like he was walking but then his hands were on the ground. He took about 4 steps that way, but then we couldn't get him to do it again!

Friday at physical therapy he did a little bit of crawling but we could't get him to do it after wards. Finally on Sunday he crawled to go get a ball! The rest of the day it seemed to have finally clicked and he was all over the place.

They also moved him from the baby room to the creeper/crawler room at church today, so I think he had to live up to the name :)

Swim, Swim, Swim!!

Kayden LOVES the pool. LOVES IT! Over Memorial Day weekend, my parents got a little kid pool and put it in their backyard so Audrey and Kayden could play. We weren't sure how he would do, and he was a little iffy about it at first but we stuck him in his float and he was perfectly fine! (and sooo cute). He would have just sat in that float and played in the pool all day if he could.



Later that week we took him out to Woodland Pool... and he continued to love it, even though he couldn't sit in his float!



and then after the pool....

asleep holding his foot :) he was worn out!

A milestone of sorts!

I have not ever heard of people saying "ahhh my child can go from laying down to sitting up on their own!!" I guess it's not that huge of a milestone for babies. However, since it has been something we have been working on and working on for 2 months now, it is a HUGE milestone for us!

Kayden went from completely laying down to completely sitting up for the first time by himself on Thursday at physical therpay. It's like he knows his therapist LOVES seeing his milestones and he always waits until physical therapy to show what he can do. The first time he rolled over, at physical therapy. The first time he pulled up on his own, at physical therapy. And the first time he went from completely laying down to completely sitting up, at physical therapy. I know his therapist gets just as excited as I do when he reaches milestones, so I'm ok with sharing the exciting occasions with her. I still get to see him do it for the first time, and we get to celebrate together! I'm sure everyone in the physical therapy place thinks we are both nuts because when he does something for the first time, BOTH of us are clapping our hands and praising him. Going from laying down to sitting is one of those developments that the therapist was really wanting him to accomplish soon... so I'm glad that he is doing it. She said that it is not a skill that kids do until somewhere around 9 or 10 months but since she has been working on it for so long she was hoping he would do it soon. The hard work paid off :)

He practiced a lot of the weekend, and now the kid can get where ever he wants to go. Considering he doesn't do your traditional crawl... he doesn't let it stop him. He can get from one side of a room, to another. He does a combination or rolling, going from laying down to sitting, back to laying down, from sitting position to crawling position, and will reach, stretch and move his arms and legs while in the crawling position...without actually crawling in order to get to things. It's like he knows exactly how far he has to go to get something and will do exactly what it takes and nothing more.

This kid could take off if he wanted to. But apparently, he doesn't. He gets into the crawling position, moves his hands and knees, but doesn't go far. He gets to his toy, and then stops. I'm ok with that. He gets to what he wants without me having to go get it every time, but he can't move fast enough to get into everything constantly.

He is also pulling up on EVERYTHING! He has been doing this for a couple weeks now and he has mastered it. You can't put him far enough away from the coffee table or the couch. He will get to it and pull up in a heartbeat. I'm loving this stage... even if it is exhausting sometimes!

9 months old

Dear Kayden-
Here we are! 3 months away from your first birthday. I feel like it was just yesterday that you were turning 6 months old... and now apparently 3 more months have flown by!

Oh my how you have grown and changed even from just those 3 months ago! You are so unbelievably cute! I may be biased... but other people agree! You are the life of the party when we go anywhere and everyone can't help but to talk to your smiling face. You have become the happiest and sweetest little boy. You have always been such a sweetheart, but you haven't always been the happiest. After mommy and daddy finally figured out what was bothering your tummy, you have just been so happy and pleasant to be around. Your smile, oh how it melts my heart!! You have the sweetest smile and I love seeing it all the time now.

You have also become quite the mover. You can now pull yourself up on anything and everything that will hold. You LOVE standing and would much rather do that over crawling. You have just started crawling and it's quite entertaining. You leave one leg up like you are trying to walk and then you crawl with the other leg. Mommy was so excited that you crawled before we went on vacation! I was hoping you would be able to crawl around and play with your cousins when we went on all the family vacations we are going to this year!

Mommy got a job this month, and even though I do not start until August, I'm already dreading leaving you. I love spending everyday with you and watching you play, learn, and discover this world. It's going to be hard on both of us for me to be away from you but I know you will have fun with the people who will be taking care of you. I am going to enjoy these next 2 months with you before I have to leave you every day and take in each moment.

I love you sweet boy and can't wait to see what all you learn and discover in this next month!
Love- Mommy

Cereal

You always start cereal before you start baby foods. We did the same. However, we didn't realize that said cereal was causing Kayden such discomfort!

I could always tell that Kayden's stomach just never seemed to feel right. He wasn't exceptionally fussy but he definitely wasn't the happiest baby you've ever met either. After bouts of crying and constant constipation, I decided we were going to cut out ALL food altogether and see what happens. After a week it was apparent that there was indeed something that he was eating that was causing his stomach to hurt. He transformed into a total different baby! He was constantly happy and laughing, and didn't mind to just sit in the floor a play for as long as an hour! Before, there was no way on earth that this child would just sit and play by himself. He had to constantly be held and comforted.

I kinda thought that the cereal may be what was causing the problem so we never reintroduced it, and we haven't had any problems. We are going to talk to the doctor about it at his 9 month appointment, but I am really hoping it is just the additional iron in the cereal on top of the formula that was causing the problem and not that he has some type of allergy.

8 months old

Dear Kayden-
Here we are at 8 months old! Your little personality just continues to grow and develop day by day. You love to talk and babble. And you love to move. You move around and try to get everything that you can possibly reach. You have finally started to enjoy just sitting in the floor and playing with your toys rather than just being held all the time. Mommy is very happy about that! You are so interested in your toys and I can tell by the look on your face you are trying to figure out how it works.

You still are not crawling, but you find a way to get what you want. You will roll around, stretch, push yourself, until you get what you want. You are figuring it all out very quickly though. Just this month you started pushing yourself up into a more bear type crawling position rather than up on all fours... so we will see what you end up doing!

Right before your 8 month birthday, mommy had her first mother's day! That time last year you were in my belly, and I had no clue how much I would love you or how special my first mother's day would be. We had a very busy and packed day, but I loved just getting to hang out with the little man that made me a mother. You are such a sweet and special little boy!!

You have grown up so much over this month sweet boy and I can't wait to see how much you continue to grow!

I love you!
Momma

Evaluation Results!

We got Kayden's evaluation notes from physical therapy two weeks ago and were very pleased. He is right on age wise in the two categories (i don't have the evaluation right in front of me now... but when i get it i'll post what they are). He is considered at a 9 month age for his stationary movement so this was all really good news to us. She is not concerned at all with him still not crawling. He finds his own way to get around, scooting on his butt, going backwards, reaching, lunging, if there is something he wants, he finds a way. He is still much more interested in cruising along the coffee table and walking while you hold his hands than crawling. If he is fussing, all you have to do is stand him up and he will get a huge smile on his face.

When we went to therapy last week we saw the owner instead of our regular therapist because she was on vacation. The owner was concerned with the fact that he gets so angry whenever you touch his head. He is really hard to stretch because he will throw a complete temper tantrum if you touch his head, especially if we are in therapy. She is worried about what emotional damage it may be doing now and she said she barely can even tell that he has a tilt. She thinks at this point that we should no longer be going to therapy and should just do the stretches at home rather than him coming there every week.

So here are my issues with this:
- just last week his therapist was still concerned with the tilt, saying he still has a noticable tilt (however he did have tape on all week last week which is something that is suppose to help so maybe it did do quite a bit of help when the owner saw him on tuesday)
- she said we should continue the stretches at home but not come into the therapy place because she is worried about his emotional well being. ok, i get it... but maybe this is selfish of me but I would much rather my child have an adversion to other people touching him rather than his parents. I don't want my child to fear ME when I touch him, but to be honest, i could care less if he fears YOU when YOU touch him. It makes much more sense to me to come and have him stretched once a week by you all, even if he throws a fit, rather than me stretching him at home and him hating when I touch him......
- development- yes he is right on in all of his areas, but his therapist is very good at making sure he stays that way. he didn't roll over consistently until closer to 6 months old... he is still not crawling.... she has been a HUGE help when it comes to showing me ways to encourage him to do things and get him to reach the milestones he needs to reach. she has shown me ways to make him roll over, help him with sitting, and showing me how to help him go from laying down to sitting, along with crawling. She mostly works on developmental stuff when we are there and then throws in the stretching.

She said she was going to talk to his therapist and see what she says... but I think she is with me on this. We haven't talked about what the owner said exactly yet, but I think we both agree that it is better for him to come there for a little while longer. I plan on sitting down and expressing this concerns with her on thursday. The owner did say that she thinks it would be alright if we still brought him in once a week to work on the developmental stuff but that we shouldn't do stretching for a little while so that we can break the association. I'm ok with that, but I am still worried about ME stretching him and what associations he has with that.

We will see. I love the owner of the place but when she said all that I was a little taken aback.

We went from months of nothing to talk about with physical therapy and torticollis...to now having an update every week i feel like. i'll keep ya posted!! :)

So... kayden is 8 months old.

And i haven't posted the 6 month, or the 7 month, and now he is 8 months. The 6 month... well that whole month just seemed to pass by really quickly. So, we will have to just deal with a picture that was taken on his 6 month birthday. Trust me, this is driving me nuts that it doesn't match the others but I will just have to get over it.


and then the 7 month photo..

that was the best one I could get, they are getting harder and harder!

and the 8 month.... well I still have 5.5 hours to get that one taken... :)

1st Mother's Day

My first Mother's day!!

Last year, on Mother's day, I was 5 months pregnant and we had just found out we were having a little boy. That mother's day was special, in the fact that I was a mother at that point. But I didn't know how much I would truly appreciate being a mother until I saw my little boy.

This year, Mother's day was much different, and also a lot more different than I expected it to be. Kayden was diagnosed with croup on Thursday. He really wasn't having any problems with it though, until Saturday night. We were up all.night.long. Literally. At 5 in the morning, it was then that I realized that this was what Mother's day was all about. Taking care of your sick little boy all night long. Because you love him. Because you are his mother.

While I greatly miss my sleep. I wouldn't change anything in the world. I love this little boy more than words could explain. Every thought, every decision... all revolves around him. It's all about him.

Mother's Day also brought on new changes for myself. Since the day he was born I have spent every day with this boy. I have absolutely loved staying at home with him and taking care of him. I love it. I wish I could do it forever. But, the reality is that I can't. Not this time around. I knew this day was coming.... I just didn't realize how quickly the day was approaching. I got my first call for an interview Mother's Day night. I thought that it would be a big change for me to go from school/work to staying at home. But it wasn't. It was normal to me, natural, what I knew I would always do. Going to work from staying at home with this little boy for a year. THAT'S going to be an adjustment. A HARD ONE. One that I really don't want to think about anymore. There are going to be tears. There have already been tears and it's still 3 months away... as long as I get a job. But it's all for him. Even going to work, will be all for him. For him to have a better life. That's what he deserves. That's what mothers are for :)

Encouraging News

We just got back from Kayden's Re- evaluation appointment and his therapist gave him some encouraging and reassuring news. While he still does have a tilt with the torticollis, she thinks that he is fine developmentally. She hasn't sat down and done all the statistical stuff she needs to do yet, but based on what she saw today and what she could just tell from looking at the paperwork, that he should be fine. We will have a full write up next week and go everything then.

She said that there are several things that he is doing that he "shouldn't" be doing until around 9-10 months and then there are some things that he isn't doing quite yet but is working on it. Those things are more focused because of his neck though and the development in that area. A lot of the more advanced things that he is doing is based on standing and things that don't really involve his neck muscles. She said the fact that he will hold your fingers and take "walking steps", loves standing up and can stand up using a table and kind of creep a long the table, loves to hold your fingers while standing and jump up and down, all of that is stuff that he shouldn't be mastering until 9-10 months but he has already mastered it. Hearing that has made me feel SOOO much better!

With the walking before crawling, she said since he has such an interest in it that it is ok if he does, she just doesn't want him to totally skip crawling. A lot of times if they walk first, they never really develop their crawling skills because they know walking can get them where they want to go faster. She said we just have to make sure that he still crawls and develops those skills too. He is getting a lot better at crawling though. He is finally moving his arms when you move his legs. He can move his legs on his own but won't move his arms and then he eventually either face plants or falls flat. So we have been working on us moving his legs, and him moving his arms so that he gets use to the movement. He did better than he ever has at physical therapy today so I'm excited about that!


On another note, Kayden has croup, and may have the beginning stages of hand, foot, mouth disease. :( He was coughing a HORRIBLE sounding cough last night and this morning so I decided to get it checked out today after his physical therapy appointment. He hasn't really acted like he feels bad or has a fever or anything, just the cough. She gave him a steroid, but when she looked at his throat there was a sore in it. She said that usually there are quite a few and then they develop on their hands and feet, but with him just having the one she couldn't say for sure that he does have it, just not to be concerned if they develop on his hands and feet. So we will see! I hope not, but there really isn't much we can do about it either way.

oh torticollis!

I haven't talked much about it lately, mainly because there really hasn't been much to talk about. He still goes to physical therapy every week and we work on just about everything. Last week, his therapist decided that this coming week (this thurday) she was going to re-evaluate him. I was really hesitant about this because I don't want her to "discharge" him, but I also wanted her to do it so that I would have a full report about how far he has come, what all he still needs to do, and just her over all thoughts. She asked me if I had any concerns about his head. My only major concern was that you can tell that one side is just a little flatter than the other. This is normal for most children with torticollis, but is usually fixed. She told me that she didn't think it was really bad but told me about a helmet that we could have him wear. She seemed to not really think that was what we needed to do but she wanted me to do my research on it and form my own opinions about the helmet before she tells me hers.

With the helmet, he would have to wear it 23 hours a day. It's better for them to have it before 9 months. They use a little tool to measure how round the head is on each side and his is only a 4 mm difference. Severe is 16. His is considered very mild. Since his head is a little larger than normal, it would put a bit of pressure on his head. This was everything the physical therapist told me. The way she talked about it, even though she wanted me to form my own opinion, made me feel like she really didn't think that we should do it. I think we have decided to not do it. With it only being 4 mm, it's not a developmental concern, and is more for cosmetics. I don't care about cosmetic. The therapist even said, now that he is sitting up, moving, will be crawling and walking soon, all those things will help and, while she can't promise that it will get better, she said a lot of times it does. Also, once he starts growing hair she said she doesn't think it would be noticeable at all.

My other concern was development. In his first evaluation, there were several indications that he may be a little behind with reflexes and some other developmental things. Knowing that, I knew that it may take him a little longer to reach milestones than other kids his age. It has taken me a very long time to accept that and understand that every baby is different. Just because he doesn't roll over at the same time other kids do, sit up and crawl at the same time, does not mean that he is going to be slow the rest of his life. I guess that was the teacher part of me. It has worried me that he would have a hard time learning things and wouldn't be "as smart" as the other kids. Stupid, I know but it has been a real fear of mine. I think I have finally realized that it is OK! Just because another kid starts rolling over, sitting up, crawling before him does not mean that there is something wrong with him. Some babies just don't do things at the same time. That DOES NOT mean that they are not as smart and will have issues for the rest of their life.

Sorry for the rant, Back to development- the therapist said she thinks he may be a little behind. We didn't talk much about it, I think we will discuss that more in detail after his re-evaluation. She said her main concern was that he was not able to go from laying down to sitting up. We have been working on it a lot, but he just doesn't seem to want to do it. I feel like that is something that will come a long once he starts crawling. I'm not too worried about it, but it's still something that is in the back of my head.

As for crawling, he still rocks, but doesn't take off. He scoots himself backwards, and then gets frustrated because instead of getting closer to the object he wants, he gets further away. He has more interest in pulling up on things and taking steps and standing rather than crawling. I think we may have an issue with wanting to do some things before the other. He wanted to sit up before he rolled, now he wants to walk before he crawls. People say this is normal, many kids do this, however his physical therapist DOES NOT want him to walk before he crawls. She said that it is not good for them to walk before they crawl. Crawling develops a lot of muscles and coordination. The side to side motion of throwing and catching, along with many other things. We talked about this a lot in detail and she even said that there are studies that have showed the correlation of crawling/walking first with reading and learning development. She was VERY passionate about not letting him walk before he crawls so we work on crawling a lot, and then we work on the correct way of pulling up (crawling over to an object, hands up and sitting on your knees, and then one leg up then the other- rather than pulling straight up with both legs). She also said that when people "bear crawl" like kayden attemps to do (with his legs straight and butt up in the air) that they tend to walk on their toes which is also a big no-no but she said when he pulls up and walks with you holding his hands, that he shows no signs of wanting to walk on his toes (thank goodness!)

so that's where we are at. We still do neck stretches because he still has a little bit of a tilt but his range of motion is fabulous. She said she the tilt can either get better or worse when he starts walking so we will have to see. With her saying that, I think we will be going to physical therapy at least until he starts walking, which is fine by me. The tilt is also worse when he is tired so we are having to work on that also.

I definitely thought torticollis would be easier than this, but i'm thankful it's nothing more serious.

7 months old

Dear kayden-
The months just seem to keep going by faster and faster! You are already 7 months old and I feel like before I blink you are going to be 8 months! Your personality just keeps shining through and getting cuter and cuter everyday! You love playing on the floor with your toys an you have gotten really good at rolling over and sitting up all on your own. Mommy and daddy got you a jumperoo and you absolutely love it. You will sit and jump in there for quite a while before you get bored and want to do something else. You are quite a busy baby and get bored easily so we have to find a bunch of different things for you to play with so that you don't get bored.

You have also become quite mobile. You have started trying to get on your hands and knees but haven't figure out how to crawl yet, but you don't let that stop you. You will scoot and roll until you get to where you want to go. You also love to look around and see different things. When people are around you are constantly trying to see then and move about no matter how we are holding you. You also love to eat! You have now had sweet potatos, carrots, green beans, peas, avocado, apples, plums, prunes, and bananas. We will soon be adding pears, apricots, and squash! You,so far, have loved everything you have tried but somethings don't really agree with your stomach. We only give you greenbeans and peas every now and then because when you eat them, you get really fussy and don't sleep well that night. I hope that will change as you get older!

You still sleep with mommy and daddy, and we are ok with that. We both love waking up to you talking and playing with our faces so we have given up on forcing you to sleep in your crib right now. We do try and put you in there for a couple hour at the beginning of the night but you always wake up around 12 and end up in bed with us. We will just enjoy that time with you, because all too soon you won't want to sleep with us anymore.

This past month you also started having some friends stay with us during the week. Mac and jay come to play with you 3 days a week and you absolutely love them. You just laugh and stare at them and want them to be constantly paying attention to you. You want to play and run with them so bad that you will air and flap your arms in hopes of being able to move to get them. They are so good with you and will come and play peek-a-boo with you and give you toys to play with. I know you are really going to miss them when they stop coming in June!

I am loving every minute I get to spend with you! You are just growing an changing every day and I am so glad I get to be there to see everything! You have an amazing personality and everyone who sees you loves to come and talk to you. They all talk about how you are so happy and such a beautiful baby. Mommy agrees with them 100%. I couldn't have asked for a better baby and I am so thankful that God has given you to me.

Love you so much baby boy,
Mommy

And the physical therapist was worried about his arm strength.....

We've been working on arm strength at physical therapy so that he would be able to start crawling soon. I don't think we have anything to worry about!! He cracks me up when he does this. He tries so hard to bend his knees and get into the crawling position himself, but it ends up looking like this. He moves like this too, except he goes backwards!
In this picture he started out where the toy was by Audrey and did his little version of crawling to where he is now.


I have a feeling I only have about a week or two before we have a crawler on our hands!

On the move!

Kayden turned 7 months on Sunday and in typical fashion he started something new right around his 7 month "birthday". I've noticed every month he seems to do something new right around his monthly birthdays. 4 months was the first time he rolled over at physical therapy, 5 months was the sippy cup and sitting up on his own, 6 months was waving bye bye and now 7 months...... rocking on his hands and knees!!

We had been working on getting into the crawling position and being able to bear weight through his arms so that he could hold his self up at physical therapy. With the muscles in his neck, he has always had a hard time pushing up when he is on his belly. He finally has gotten to where he will do that with ease so we have been working on the crawling. When he wants something when he is sitting he can get into the position but usually falls pretty quickly because his leg gets stuck. However, if you get him up on his hands and knees he will hold it himself for quite a while and then yesterday he started rocking. I guess the next move is to take off! I'm not sure I'm quite ready for this boy to be mobile quite yet!!

Jumperoo

Finally figured out the jumperoo and lovin' it!

Doctors office

Kayden thought the paper at the doctor's office was awesome!

our little musician!

Kayden playing piano!

The Schedule

The past couple weeks, Kayden has not been sleeping well and I just feel like he has been pretty fussy for no reason. I've been reading some different things and have decided to put Kayden on more of a "time" schedule rather than just a routine. Before, we were more on a routine where whenever he wakes up in the morning he gets a bottle, plays and then naps and we just do that over and over again throughout the day. It was working for a while but when I started watching other kids in our home every day of the week it was harder for me to make sure that Kayden was sleeping and how long he was sleeping since I was taking care of other children and not able to just focus on Kayden.

The past week I decided to try to get him on a schedule that is based more on time so that while watching the other kids I know that at this time Kayden should be doing x,y,or z instead of trying to remember how long it had been since he had eaten, when should he nap, how long he napped, etc. It seems to be working and over all I feel like he is starting to get the hang of it and be a little more content and sleeping better at night.

So far this is what we have been doing, we will probably have to tweek it a little since he seems to sometimes get up earlier in the morning but we will see what happens for a little while before we do a lot of changes

8:00- wake up and 6 oz bottle
9:00- nap for 1 1/2- 2 hours
11:00- wake up from nap- eat cereal
12:00- 6 oz bottle
1:00- nap for 1 1/2- 2 hours
3:00- wake up
4:00- 6 oz bottle
5/5:30- cat nap for about 45 minutes
7- 2 oz of baby food
8- bath time
8:30- 6oz bottle with rice
9- asleep
11:30- usually we wake him up for another 5/6 oz bottle. He still isn't eating enough ounces through the day to completely get rid of this bottle and if he doesn't have it he usually wakes up hungry. Once he starts eating more food around 8 months we are going to work on cutting this bottle out unless he acts like he doesn't need anymore earlier.

6 months old

Dear Kayden-
You are 6 months old. Half a year old! OH MY!! I have enjoyed the past 6 months so much! Staying home with you, rocking you, playing with you, feeding you... it has been the best 6 months of my life!

The past month you have accomplished a lot of things! You are getting better at rolling over every day even though we still have to work on it a lot! You have eaten sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and peas. You LOVE the sweet potatoes and the carrots but you are not a big fan of the green veggies.... but we will keep trying! Apparently, Uncle Sam was a lot like you when he was little and would only eat orange stuff too! Let's try to keep your skin from turning orange though!! :)

Your personality is really starting to develop and most of the time you are a happy baby! You love laughing at daddy and smile at him when he comes home from work. You are definitely a momma's boy though. You cuddle and want me to hold you all.the.time. I don't mind though. However, you do have to play in the floor so that you can keep learning how to roll over, lift up, sit up, and eventually crawl! You are doing great with sitting up now though and can pretty much sit up all on your own. Sometimes when you get excited though you fall down, so Ms. Kelli (your physical therapist) is working on how to catch yourself. You are doing great at physical therapy and learn all kinds of great things there. They are still working on your neck but they also have been teaching you how to sit up, catch yourself when you start to fall, go from laying down to sitting up, and we have even worked a little on crawling!

You are starting to notice your surrounding more and more, and you LOVE being at home! When you start to get fussy when you are out, you are instantly happy as soon as we get home. I hope you know home is a safe place and I hope you are always happy when you come home like you are now :) You also LOVE being outside in your stroller. As it has gotten warmer we have gone on walks in your stroller and you will just look at all the new surroundings. You also like to sleep in your stroller so if you are especially fussy for a nap, and it's warm outside, we take a walk :) You also love when people give you attention and you are not a fan of people walking away. It doesn't matter if you know them or not, if they stop talking to you and turn away you start crying! You do it ALOT to mommy when she is getting ready though. If I walk out of the room to go get something you start screaming your lungs out, but you are fine as soon as I pick you up.

You also had your first visit on the sick side of the doctor's office this month and your first fever :( You were so pitiful when you were sick and all you wanted to do was sleep and be held. We had to go to the doctor several times but you just had what was going around and there was nothing we could do besides give you some medicine and make you sleep a lot. You eventually got over it but it took a good week for you to get back to your normal self. Mommy and Daddy were so happy the day you woke up and we could tell you were back to your normal, happy, playful baby! We don't like to see you sick and miserable!0

Mommy and Daddy love you so much little boy and can't wait to see what the rest of the first year will hold! You are such a great little boy and I can't imagine what my life was like before you!

Love, You mommy :)